


Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

by RedNightDeer



Category: DCU, DCU (Comics), Deathstroke the Terminator (Comics), Justice League - All Media Types
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Betaed, Don't copy to another site, Emotional Manipulation, I mean we're talking about Slade here, Jarro is just having a huge crush, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-25
Updated: 2020-12-06
Packaged: 2021-01-03 04:20:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21173324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedNightDeer/pseuds/RedNightDeer
Summary: Slade meets Jarro, an alien starfish.





	1. Day 1 : Caught in the act

**Author's Note:**

> So this started in DC event server where someone asked if Jarro counted as a robin for the sladin week. Well, the question gave me the idea of this fic.

“Caught you!” A tiny, high-pitched voice was laughing.

Before Slade could turn around, something sped through the air towards him and landed on his left shoulder’s spaulder plating with a little ‘stomp’. The impact was light enough that he could barely feel it, but what surprised him more was what it  _ was _ . For a moment all he did was stare at the… starfish? Did someone just throw a starfish at him? 

He glanced around in the warehouse, wary of the shadows, but no one was there. There was a high chance it was an Atlantean - who else would use  _ starfish _ as a weapon?. 

“What are you doing, mister?”

The voice was even closer now. 

“Who are you?” he called out into the empty warehouse, tense. Slade had never liked games. 

“I’m... no I can’t tell you. Sorry, mister.” 

Slade inspected his spaulder again and a large round eye blinked open to stare at him. 

“What the f-”

“Language!” ordered the starfish Slade was speaking to a talking starfish.

Slade sighed, his brow furrowing as he took the star by one of its arms with two fingers and detached it from his armour. The creature giggled as if it was ticklish. The mercenary held it a distance from his face.

“So... what are you?”

“Not  _ what _ , who! I’m Robin, Mister Deathstroke, and I caught you!”

Slade raised his eyebrows under his mask. If the Bat decided that this...  _ talking starfish _ was good enough to be a Robin, there must have been a good reason for it. He should be cautious. But maybe... maybe he could... manipulate him.

“Caught me?” Slade laughed and took off his mask. “For what? I wasn’t doing anything bad.”

He had been.

The starfish’s eye went a little glazed, then he started giggling again, stammering unintelligibly. 

“So?” Slade asked with a little grin. The starfish started twitching between his fingers.

“Calm down, buddy. What d’you say we go for... a drink?” Slade didn’t even know if it could drink or not, but it was worth a shot.

The creature twitched and stuttered more, but eventually let out a breathless little ‘okay’. 

Slade would have to pause the search for his next target, but it was okay, if it was to manipulate a Robin again. 

The mercenary’s grin widened.

None of them felt the little change in the air around them. 


	2. Prison Inmates are soulmates

Slade didn’t know how they’d ended up trapped in this cell. Everything had happened so fast. One moment he was searching for information about his next target, and the next,a talking starfish working for Batman had come to ‘arrest’ him. Then Ra’s ninjas had attacked them and the star had unexpectedly tried to help him, but one of the ninjas had tried to use him as a shuriken and everything had gone downhill from there. In the end, Slade had gotten hit on the head and lost consciousness. 

When he woke up, he was in a cell, with the little starfish over his chest, sniffing and stammering nonsense - again. 

“Hey buddy...” he mumbled. “I’m okay.”

The star looked up; tears were streaming down from his single eye. 

“Slade!” he cried. “I thought I lost you!

“I don’t die that easily.” 

He tried to get up but his hands were chained to the wall. Well, maybe the star would finally be useful.

“Hey, buddy, can you help me with these?” he asked,rattling the chains.

“Of course!” The little creature left his chest and went to look at the handcuffs. Thirty minutes and fifty-three apologies about being useless later, Slade was free. 

“Okay, buddy–”

“Jarro.”

“What?”

“My name is Jarro.”

Slade grinned. “Well, Jarro, let’s go out.”

Running away from the guards and finally leaving the underground prison was harder than what they thought, but in the end, they made it out alive and in one piece. 

Slade had stolen a jeep and now they were riding over the sandy plains of Tunisia. The stars were shining bright in the black night as they headed to Sfax to take a plane from there back to the States. Slade knew some ways to get himself a fake passport and the starfish wasn’t going to be hard to hide. 

“The stars are beautiful,” said Jarro, contemplating the sky. 

“They are.” was the only answer the man gave him. 

“Do you want to be my soulmate?”

Slade didn’t say anything. What could he say? He looked at the little creature on the next seat. His eye was full of hope. If he said no, it would upset the little thing. If he said yes, he would have greater control over him, but would Jarro want more? He supposed he could risk it.

“Okay buddy, let’s be soulmates.”


	3. Everything has a price

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would like to thank Leo for beta-ing this.

They arrived back in the States. As Sladed landed, the Young Justice came to fight. It was close to five in the damn morning and he still didn’t have his first cup of coffee and this bunch of high testosterone teenagers were attacking him.

Just great. What a way to start a day.

“Nope,” was the only word he said as he fought them and finally managed to escape. 

He decided to hide in one of his safe houses until he would plan his next move. 

Once in the house, he took off his clothes and headed to the showers. 

During his shower, he heard a little voice.

“Can I come in, Mister?”

Right. Jarro. Jarro was with him. 

“Yeah, come in,” he said. 

Jarro entered the bathroom, but even if Slade couldn’t see him through the shower curtain, he sensed the tiny thing was sad.

“I should have fought with them against you.”

“But you didn’t.”

“I didn’t.”

Slade didn’t say anything. 

“I should have fought you,” repeated Jarro, “but I couldn’t do it. I didn’t want to hurt you. But I betrayed them by not fighting you.”

Oh. That's right. Jarro was a Robin. 

“Listen, Jarro. Everything has a price. If you want to be with me, you have to say goodbye to them.”

The starfish didn’t answer him for a long time, but Slade heard him sigh a lot. 

“I guess,” he finally said. 

“So? What’s your decision?”

“I will leave them.”

Good. He had already managed to break the little thing.

“This makes me happy. I look forward to us working together.”


	4. Nice Slade and Deathstar

Slade tried to be nice towards the star. Jarro was not very mature, and during the week they stayed in the safehouse, he acted a lot in a childish way. 

At first, Slade had questioned Jarro’s Robin mantle. How was this immature star _ Robin _ ? But then he had remembered that Batman always gave the mantle to literal human kids until now, so why not a kid alien star? It wasn’t _ that _ weird. 

Slade really was nice towards Jarro. He helped him train, and he had to admit, the star wasn’t bad. 

Finally, he decided it was time to give a new name and costume to Jarro. The name wasn’t going to be hard to find, the costume, on the other hand… It wasn’t like he could call Wintergreen and just ask him to get him a _ starfish _ costume in black and orange colours. 

“You know that you need to quit being Robin, right?” he asked one night, at dinner.

Jarro nodded, but he clearly was sad. He let out a sigh and looked at Slade. “Yeah…”

“What do you want your new alias to be?” 

“Could it be something that is like your name?”

Slade nodded. 

“I was thinking about… _ Deathstar _…”

That was actually a good name, Slade had to admit it. “I approve of it,” he said. 

The star’s eye shine with joy. “Really?” he asked and Slade could hear a muffled giggle. 

“Yeah, really. Nice name.”

There were some more giggles. “And can I have a costume like yours?” 

“Yeah, buddy, you can.” 

  
Finding a costume was going to be hard, but Slade was _ definitely not going to sew _it himself.


End file.
